September 2014

Mobius Science Center Outreach

  1. Purpose:

The purpose of the Mobius Science Center Outreach Project is to expand mobile outreach of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to underrepresented student populations in rural, tribal, and low-income communities. Additionally the purpose is to build general awareness of STEM and NGSS science initiatives in the local schools and communities, and to build capacity for STEM science teaching and learning in the region.

  1. Description of services provided:
  2. Impact Section I.

Educational Leaders realize that the NGSS represent a new opportunity to make science relevant, interesting and meaningful for all students, their families and the broader community.

  • Mobius Science Center provided demonstration lessons, led students in experiments and science explorations, determined in collaboration with teachers to address local learning needs and expectations, with five School Districts: 1 middle school each in Cusick, Garfield-Palouse, Lind-Ritzville, Odessa, and three middle schools in the Spokane District; Garry, Glover and Shaw.

Project Impacts

  • Build a more exciting, robust science education system in rural, tribal, and underserved schools.
  • Build successful partnerships with teachers, school administrators, and community members that promote strong community support for both formal and informal science education.
  • Initial Science Night – Opening Celebrations in each of the seven middle schools for the students, families and general community. The Science Nights included Mobius’s Planetarium for multiple shows, Mobius science education staff demonstrations, hands-on experiments for people to tryout, and partnerships, such as the Spokane Astronomical society bringing their telescopes.Two Districts, Odessa and Cusick were able to schedule end of the year Science Nights.

Project Impacts

  • Increase critical stakeholders’ understanding of how informal education can help meet the standards and expectations of the NGSS.
  • Build successful partnerships that contextualize science locally and help promote high-quality science education in the affected district.
  • Only one District, Odessa, took advantage of the Field Trip opportunity. Other District’s calendars, especially considering school sporting events calendars, did not provide time.
  • All seven Schools received monthly science lessons/units taught by the Mobius science educators. The content varied according to the needs of the schools, programs ready for delivery each month and interests of the students and suggestions from teachers.

Project Impacts

  • Build successful partnerships with teachers, school administrators, and community members that promote strong community support for both formal and informal science education.
  • Build a more exciting, robust science education system in rural, tribal, and underserved schools.
  • Mobius arranged and hosted one meeting for the Informal Educators Network in late January 2014.

Project Impacts

  • Increase critical stakeholders’ understanding of how informal education can help meet the standards and expectations of the NGSS.
  • Build successful partnerships with teachers, school administrators, and community members that promote strong community support for both formal and informal science education.
  1. Impact Section II.

Implementing the NGSS in a bias-free and culturally sensitive manner will help reduce the opportunity gap and increase interest [and choices] in science, technology, engineering and mathematics related courses.

  • Mobius held one Informal Education Professional Development for teachers: our Teacher Resource Fair.

Project Impact

  • Teachers will be better able to present STEM-related curriculum in a culturally sensitive manner, drawing on formally designed informal pedagogical techniques, increasing student interest and science success.
  • Critical stakeholders will better understand contexts in which science education is embedded and how the NGSS can best be used in these contexts.
  • Mobius planned for and purchased instructional materials, consumable supplies and made or purchased equipment for the project based on the needs and science program developed for each school.

Project Impact

  • Teachers will be better able to present STEM-related curriculum in a culturally sensitive manner, drawing on formally designed informal pedagogical techniques, increasing student interest and science success.
  1. Impact Section III.

A few well-placed simple steps can make all the difference in the world for reducing the opportunity gap in sciences.

  • Mobius engaged in a planning period, 9/13-1/14 with five school districts, Cusick, Garfield-Palouse, Lind-Ritzville, Odessa, and Spokane, prior to the delivering project events, lessons and activities for the schools in each district. Mobius also consulted with NEWESD 101, to collaborate on needs of the region for science education.

Project Impact

  • Build a strong understanding of and appreciation for STEM education among critical stakeholders.
  • Regional science partnerships are created with the power to enhance student engagement and achievement in STEM.
  • Build regional capacity to serve rural, tribal, and underserved students in a culturally appropriate manner.
  • Across all project sites community members and stakeholders have increased awareness of informal education strategies, programs, and events.
  1. Criteria for receiving services and/or grants:
  2. Those receiving services from Mobius Science Center as part of this Grant are from populations underrepresented in STEM courses and STEM careers and from low-income communities, as per the Grant application.
  3. The schools’ students qualify as “underrepresented populations”: three Title I Schools in the Spokane District, 3 rural schools and 1 rural Tribal School.
  4. The rural schools Free/Reduced-Priced Meal range from 29% to 43.9%, the tribal school’s percent is 56.9, the three Title I schools from the Spokane District range from 73.1% to 84.4%. (OSPI, 2013).
  5. “The Mobius Science Center project was interested in differences in student outcomes for those underrepresented in STEM. The Mobius Science Center project defined the entire sample of students as underrepresented in STEM because of the rural locale. The research literature defines females as underrepresented in STEM along with African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans”.(RMC Evaluation Report, June 2014).
  1. Beneficiaries in 2013-2014 School Year:

# School Districts: 5: Cusick, Garfield-Palouse, Lind-Ritzville, Odessa,Spokane

# Schools: 7

# Students: 501

[# Community: 1450]

  1. FY 14 Funding: State Appropriation: $100,000

School District Funds:

Corporate Funds:

TOTAL (FY14)

  1. Are Federal or other funds contingent on state funding:No
  1. First year funded: FY 2014

State funding since inception:

Fiscal Year / Amount
FY 14 / $100,000
  1. Number of beneficiaries (e.g., schools, students, districts) since inception:

Fiscal Year / # of School Districts / # of
Schools / # of
Students
FY 14 / 5 / 7 / Classrooms: 501
Initial Science Nights: 1450
Total: 1951
  1. Programmatic changes since inception (if any):

The Project Logic Model included a section on Social Media Activities. It became clear in working with the schools that this was neither a priority, nor was it within the existing capacity to build in the short time available. Building Social Media Activities work will be reassessed as feasible or not in Year 2.

Due to reduction in staffing, Mobius primarily focused attention to the classroom informal science instruction and lesson, with less attention to the teacher professional development and field trips. Although this was not a deliberately planned change, it was one of necessity.

  1. Evaluations of program/major findings:

RMC Research Corporation’s end of Year 1 Results (pages 17-27) and Conclusions (page 29):

A) RMC Exhibit 9 – Project Activities and Targets

“The Mobius Science Center [MSC] project only met 1 target: a 4-hour workshop was held for informal science educators in January 2014.”

Exhibit 9 - RMC table – Fourth column added by MSC

Project Activities and Targets

Activity / Target / Target Met? / MSC Notes:
Educator Professional Development Workshop / One 4 hour workshop per year / No / 0 of 1 delivered
Classroom Outreach / Each month provide a 1-period science classroom experience in each participating school / No / 25 of 28 delivered
Field trips to Mobius Science Center / Each participating school visits the MSC once per month / No / 1 of 7 delivered
Community Science Nights / Twice each year for each participating school / No / 10 of 14 delivered
Informal Science Educator Network Professional Development Workshop / One 4 hour workshop per year / Yes / 1 of 1 delivered

B) RMC Exhibit 10 – Student Ratings of Mobius Activities

“Students agreed that the Mobius Science Center was cool and that they wished someone from the Mobius Science Center would come to their classroom more often to conduct science experiments. Students offered more neutral ratings for the remainder for the items.”

Exhibit 10 – RMC Table – Fourth column added by MSC Note: Rating scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree

Item / n / Mean / MSC Notes:
Fun or Interesting
The Mobius Science Center is cool. / 476 / 4.01 / Agree
I wish the school had more community science nights / 484 / 3.28 / Neutral
I wish someone from the Mobius Science Center would come to our classroom more often to conduct science experiments. / 496 / 4.09 / Agree
Content Rich
I learned something new at the community science nights. / 456 / 3.07 / Neutral
I learned a lot when someone from the Mobius Science Center led an activity in my classroom. / 495 / 3.88 / RMC stated as Neutral?

C) RMC Exhibit 11 – Teacher Ratings of Mobius Activities

“The teachers indicated that all of the Mobius Science Center activities were well organized and valuable learning experiences for the students with one exception: teachers were neutral regarding the value of the field trips [field trip] as a learning experience for students (M = 3.75).”

Exhibit 11 – RMC Table – Fourth column added by MSC Note: Rating scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree

Item / n / Mean / MSC Notes:
The classroom experiences were well organized. / 7 / 5.00 / Strongly agree
The classroom experiences were valuable learning experiences for the students. / 7 / 4.86 / Strongly agree
The field trips were well organized / 4 / 4.00 / Agree
The field trips were valuable learning experiences for the students. / 4 / 3.75 / RMC stated as Neutral ?
The community science nights were well organized. / 6 / 4.67 / Strongly agree
The community science nights were valuable learning experiences for the students. / 6 / 4.67 / Strongly agree

D) RMC Exhibit 12 – Parent Ratings of Mobius Activities

“Of the 20 parents that completed a survey 40% had attended a community science night and 20% had participated in a field trip to Mobius Science Center. …Parents agreed that both activities taught them something new and were fun.”

Exhibit 12 – RMC Table – Fourth column added by MSC Note: Rating scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree

Item / N / Mean / MSC Notes:
Fun or Interesting
The community science nights were fun. / 6 / 4.83 / Strongly agree
The field trips were fun. / 4 / 4.75 / Strongly agree
Content Rich
The community science nights taught me something new about science. / 8 / 3.75 / Agree
The field trips taught me something new about science. / 4 / 4.38 / Agree

E) RMC Exhibit 13 – Parent Engagement

“Parents agreed that the Mobius Science Center activities increased their understanding of science occurring within their community and improved their attitude toward science. Parents reported a strong understanding of science [in] their child’s life.”

Exhibit 13 – RMC Table – Fourth column added by MSC Note: Rating scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree

Item / n / Mean / MSC Notes:
Awareness of Science Occurring Locally
The community science night increased my understanding of science occurring in the community / 8 / 4.38 / Agree
The field trip increased my understanding of science occurring in the community. / 4 / 4.25 / Agree
Improved Attitude Towards Science
The community science night changed the way I think about science. / 8 / 4.25 / Agree
The field trip changed the way I think about science. / 4 / 4.25 / Agree
The community science made me like science more. / 8 / 4.25 / Agree
The field trip made me like science more. / 4 / 4.25 / Agree
Importance of Child Learning Science Content
Science is useful in everyday life. / 20 / 4.35 / Agree
Science is important outside of school. / 20 / 4.15 / Agree
It is important for my child to understand science. / 20 / 4.70 / Strongly agree
Many people need to understand science in order to do their job. / 20 / 4.25 / Agree

F) RMC Exhibit 14 – Parent Engagement in Informal STEM

“The Mobius Science Center activities did not increase parental engagement in this area: parents were rarely engaged in informal science activities with their children prior to this project…and after project implementation.”

Exhibit 4 – RMC Table – Fourth column added by MSC Note: Rating scale: 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = all of the time -----Mean------

Item / n / (2012-2013) / (2013-2014) / MSC Notes:*
I went to a museum or science center with my child. / 17 / 2.06 / 1.82 / Rarely
I went to Mobius Science Center with my child. / 18 / 1.44 / 1.39 / Rarely
I played science or math based video games with my child.. / 19 / 1.63 / 1.68 / Rarely
I watched science or math based television shows with my child. / 19 / 2.16 / 2.21 / Rarely
I engaged in science or math related hobbies with my child. / 17 / 2.35 / 2.41 / Rarely

* Using this rating scale means that any rating above 1.00 would have to come out as “Rarely”. Also, it is unlikely that responders would be engaging in any of these statement items “all of the time”, in effect making this a three point scale rather than a five point scale.

The RMC Exhibits on previous pages are samples of the evaluation data, results and conclusions made in the Year 1 Report.

More data is available in the attached RMC Mobius Science Center Project report, June 2014.

  1. Major challenges faced by the program:
  1. Program calendaring with 7 schools, some more difficult to gain responses from than others. However, this became less of a problem as Mobius and schools built relationships through the project.
  2. Scheduling schools in the winter and spring for field trips and for spring Science Nights.
  3. Staff time for travel and implementation at schools/communities.
  4. Developing volunteers and staff in formal and informal teaching and learning practices for integrated experiential and immersive strategies.
  5. Collecting evaluation data from participants, especially students’ parents.
  6. Outreach staff was inconsistent in asking for and collecting data from teachers and students.
  7. Mobius faced specific challenges in providing ongoing communication and documentation after May 2014, due to major organization staff and leadership changes.
  8. Due to changes in staffing, Mobius did not “hand-off” communication with the RMC evaluators to a designated staff person until early summer.
  9. Two of the Mobius primary staff serving the Grant schools left Mobius before the end of Year 1 of the Grant, leaving only 1 part-time staff person available to deliver months (between February and May 2014) of the Grant services.
  10. A new Director of Education was hired in August 2014 – preparing this report without Grant Project background or consistent documentation.
  1. Statutory and/or Budget language:

Budget Proviso: ESSB 6002 – Section 501 (1)(v) - $100,000 of the general fund-state appropriation for fiscal year 2014 and $100,000 of the general fund-state appropriation for fiscal year 2015 are provided solely for the Mobius science center to expand mobile outreach of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to students in rural, tribal, and low-income communities.

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